I gave very little thought to the direction my early life was taking, yet some people considered me to be successful because I avoided the pitfalls of poverty, drugs, crime, and imprisonment. However, a one-sided junior high school crush motivated me to study. That determination to study strenuously over a three-and-a-half-year period allowed me to build an educational foundation that enabled me to do well on an I.Q. test. Then an Air Force career field assigning person, mistakenly or otherwise, overlooked the fact that I was Black and recommended that I be trained as an intelligence specialist. The recommendation was rejected in 1948 (but not cancelled) since segregation policies kept Blacks from living with and attending classes with other races until late 1949.

I believed I could be good at something other than manual labor. As a result, I charted workable careers, both in and out of the Air Force, to attain my objectives. I hope that I am still young enough at 92 to persuade others that it is much later than any of us think. Whether or not I'm still here, please stay involved and convince those that you meet to do the same. Just as a match can't be unstricken once it has been ignited, we must unite and ensure that the conditions, so essential to living creatures, recover and continue to thrive on a vibrant planet Earth in the future.